Texas Tech quarterback Seth Doege, who threw for 317 yards and four touchdowns in the Red Raiders’ spring game, climbed to No. 1 on the team’s post-spring depth chart, released today by coaches.

Jacob Karam and Scotty Young, a redshirt freshman from Denton Ryan, were listed as the co-backups behind Doege, a junior who is the only player on Tech’s 2011 roster who has thrown a regular-season pass at the college level.

Coach Tommy Tuberville has stressed that competition will resume at all positions during fall drills. But other notable names atop their positions on Thursday’s depth chart included tight end Adam James, son of ESPN football analyst Craig James; middle linebacker Cqulin Hubert, strongside linebacker Daniel Cobb, defensive tackle Kerry Hyder and defensive end Dartwan Bush. Blake Dees, a 2011 signee who enrolled in Janaury, is the backup at middle linebacker.

There was some byplay Thursday regarding Illinois coach Bruce Weber and the vacant Oklahoma basketball job.

The Norman Transcript, citing a "well-placed college basketball source" reported that Weber had emerged as a candidate for the job and that there appeared to be mutual interest.

Weber told the Chicago Tribune there was "no story" and later issued a statement.

"I received a few interest calls regarding other positions, but nothing beyond that. I remain committed to the University of Illinois," Weber said in his statement.

Weber's teams have made the NCAA Tournament in six of his eight seasons and played for the national championship in 2005. The Illini lost in the second round of this season's Tournament. His poplularity, however, has waned among fans in recent seasons. Speculation is that Weber's job could be in jeopardy as the contract of AD Ron Guenther expires at the end of June. Weber lost four seniors off this season's 20-14 team that began the year highly ranked.

OU associate athletic director Kenny Mossman said AD Joe Castiglione was, "keeping all options open" and was conducting a comprehensive and wide-spread search. The Tulsa World reported that Castiglione interviewed former player and successful Central Oklahoma coach Terry Evans on Tuesday. A source said that Wichita State coach Gregg Marshall, whose team played in the NIT championship game against Alabama Thursday night, was a possible candidate of interest and likely would be contacted in the next few days.--Mike Jones.

Texas A&M officials said today that no one currently in the Aggies’ athletics department knows anything about a reported $80,000 asking price from a recruiting service operator to deliver cornerback Patrick Peterson, the 2010 Jim Thorpe Award winner, to the Aggies out of high school.

Peterson signed with LSU and is considered the top cornerback available in April’s NFL Draft. In an ESPN interview, former A&M assistant coach Van Malone _ now working at Tulsa _ said he was contacted by recruiting service operator Willie Lyles after Peterson’s visit to A&M in 2007. Malone said Lyles told him that other schools were willing to pay $80,000 to secure Peterson’s signature on a letter of intent. Malone said he told Lyles that A&M did not pay for players.

A&M spokesman Alan Cannon said he talked earlier today with Aggies’ athletics director Bill Byrne and that school officials researched the possibility of a relationship with Lyles’ recruiting service dating back as far as the start of the Dennis Franchione era, which began in December, 2002. Cannon said no evidence was found and A&M officials consider this “a non-issue.”

“No one currently in the Texas A&M athletics department was aware of any conversations between former assistant coach Van Malone and Willie Lyles regarding payments to secure prospective players,” Cannon said. “Our business records show no financial relationship with Willie Lyles or his recruiting services. We consider this a non-issue from Texas A&M’s standpoint.”

But the issue of street agents is becoming a major concern in college football, as evidenced by recent reports alleging street-agent involvement in dealings with players at Auburn and Oregon, the two schools that played in the BCS National Championship Game in January.

During a recent news conference at the start of Oklahoma’s spring football workouts, Sooners’ coach Bob Stoops called the street-agent situation in college football “unfortunate” and declared it something he hopes administrators “can get ahold of … before it’s too late.”

“It’s unfortunate,” Stoops said of the proliferation of street agents. “Each year, it increases. In other years, we thought, ‘It’s not that bad.’ But it’s getting to be more of a big deal. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of people that are influencing these guys’ choices that don’t always have their best choices at heart ... We haven’t been (using scouting services). We prefer to talk to parents, guardians and their head coaches and assistant coaches.”

Upon further review, and in the face of evidence that BCS officials have enjoyed a few good times on the Fiesta Bowl's tab in past years, there seems to be a softening of the hard-line approach initially espoused by BCS spokesman Bill Hancock about possibly removing the Fiesta Bowl from the BCS loop in the future. The Arizona-based game has come under fire since removing CEO John Junker amid allegations of widespread improprieties earlier this week.

The issue has relevance locally because taking the Fiesta Bowl out of the BCS loop could open up a spot for the Cotton Bowl, played annually at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, in the mix of top-tier bowl games that rotate hosting duties for the BCS National Championship Game.

March 30, 2011

Cotton futures are looking better than ever today. At least when we’re talking about the Cotton Bowl’s opportunity to climb into the BCS mix and bring college football’s national championship game to its new home at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington.

The investigation into improprieties at the Fiesta Bowl, which led to Tuesday’s ouster of Fiesta Bowl CEO John Junker, raises lots of questions about whether the Arizona-based game will continue to hold its spot in college football’s elite bowl grouping.

It is telling that BCS officials have announced plans to begin their own investigation to determine “whether the Fiesta Bowl should remain a BCS bowl game.” In a statement, BCS officials raised the possibility of assessing “other appropriate sanctions” to the Arizona-based bowl that hosted the most recent BCS Championship Game in January, when Auburn defeated Oregon, 22-19.

The BCS is one year into its current four-year cycle of games, with existing contracts in place through the games that will be played in January, 2014. But the Fiesta Bowl already has hosted its lone title game in that four-year cycle.

That is a key consideration because it is conceivable that BCS officials, in a fit of indignation, could strip the Fiesta Bowl of its BCS status _ claiming breach of contract, based on the alleged illegalities that took place in Arizona _ and replace it with the Cotton Bowl without taking a BCS title game away from any of the other bowls in the BCS loop (Rose, Sugar, Orange) during this four-year cycle. That makes a quick move easier, if the BCS folks are so inclined, because it would not require bringing a title game to Arlington in this four-year cycle.

A chance to host the BCS championship game once every four years is the golden carrot that drives corporate title sponsors of BCS games, meaning Tostitos – the Fiesta Bowl’s title sponsor – already has received the brunt of its value during the current four-year cycle. Might the title sponsor want to distance itself from the Fiesta Bowl and its unflattering headlines, creating a hiccup within the existing BCS bowl configuration? Possibly.

But such a move would require lots of lawyers and create lots of headaches. It would generate more negative headlines for the BCS, which already is a four-letter entity in the mind of many college football fans. And the Cotton Bowl already has a TV contract with Fox. The BCS bowls are locked in with ESPN.

A more likely scenario, and one that would not require any contract wrangling, would be to simply replace the Fiesta Bowl with the Cotton Bowl – sponsored by AT&T – in the next four-year cycle of BCS bowl contracts. That cycle would cover games played from 2015-2018 and binding decisions regarding those contracts are not expected until 2012, at the earliest.

Expect the Cotton Bowl to be a major player in those talks when they arise. The folks at the Cotton Bowl run a first-class game, have a title sponsor in place and play in the best football stadium on the planet.

It’s a BCS-worthy package, for sure. Now that the Fiesta Bowl has inadvertently opened the door, the Cotton’s future looks bright for BCS inclusion.

Watched the PBS episode of Frontline last night with great interest because it dedicated about 20 minutes towards college sports and the NCAA tournament. Frontline correspondent and former 60 Minutes producer Lowell Bergman completed the segment.It's bend is pretty simple - college kids get screwed. They are basically pros who work on really bad, one-year contracts that are not guaranteed to roll over.This is basically what we already knew. Coaches are wildly overpaid. The NCAA exploits free labor costs.The NCAA hides behind amateur status to receive a federal tax exemption.The very aspect to the show that caught my eye is the growing class action suit filed against the NCAA on behalf of former "student" athletes who can't profit from their likeness when the NCAA sells video games, DVDs of former games, etc.

The face of this suit is Ed O'Bannon, a former star forward at UCLA who won a title with the Bruins in the '90s. His NBA career didn't pan out. Probably didn't help any that he played for the Mavs.This story comes up every year and begs the question - should student athletes get paid for their services to the university? The simple answer is yes. The complicated, and more realistic answer, Pandora's Box.

March 29, 2011

The last thing the BCS wants is any reason to look into its system beyond a bunch of sports geeks who demand a playoff. These guys do not want the law peering into their business. When BCS mouthpiece Bill Hancock says the Fiesta Bowl could lose its BCS status, he's not kidding.Amid the reports that Fiesta Bowl CEO John Junker has been canned after multiple probes revealed what most of us long ago figured - he stole money, or used his game to really blow a lot of cash.

The story illustrates what a corrupt system the bowls are. And if we think the Fiesta Bowl and its CEO are the only one doing this we are all very, very ... not bright.

On a local level, if the BCS decides to junk the Fiesta Bowl, it opens the door for Jerry World to be in the BCS. Jerry wants a BCS game in Arlington. One of the primary reasons the Cotton Bowl game moved out of Fair Park was to enhance its standings for the BCS. The BCS reviews its precious little games every four years, and dump the Fiesta Bowl to avoid any further bad publicity. Jerry World would likely be the most attractive location to replace the Fiesta Bowl.Perhaps maybe if Jerry gets this game all of the seats will be installed properly by kickoff.

I fully am aware that after an 11-22 season nearly nobody cares about TCU men's basketball. But everyone loves recruiting, so ...

* The Internet machine is abuzz that TCU will add 6-8, 250-pound forward Adrick McKinney (right), a transfer from Angelina Junior College. A TCU source confirmed McKinney has committed. He played his high school ball at Trimble Tech. He averaged 15.1 points and 8.4 rebounds per game last season at Angelina. He immediately adds muscle to a team that desperately needs it.Will this work? TCU last season whiffed badly on a pair of JC transfers, namely Sammy Yeager and Andre Clark. Both were kicked off the team during the year.

* The other player of note TCU is pursuing, and according to multiple sources has a very good chance of signing, is 6-10 forward Ryan Rhoomes out of New York. He recently took a recruiting visit to TCU that apparently went well. Of course, those visits always go "just great".Rhoomes, who began playing ball when he was an eighth grader, was offered scholarships as a senior in high school from West Virginia, Cincinnati and Virginia Tech. He elected to attend prep school. Depending on what you believe, TCU's switch to the Big East has Rhoomes interested.

TCU’s baseball game with Stephen F. Austin was postponed from Tuesday to 6:30 tonight. All Tuesday tickets will be honored Wednesday. The No. 15 Horned Frogs (15-8) will start Erik Miller on the mound against the Lumberjacks’ Cody Priest. SFA is 18-7.-- Stefan Stevenson